The short answer
SEO gets you ranked in Google's list of links. AEO, answer engine optimisation, gets you into the answer boxes and featured snippets. GEO, generative engine optimisation, gets you cited inside AI answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity. They overlap, and most UK businesses now need all three. The foundation is the same: clear, credible, well-structured content.
Three acronyms, a lot of noise, and a fair amount of people selling one as the death of the others. The truth is calmer. These are three overlapping jobs, not three warring camps, and they mostly share the same foundations. Here is what each one actually means.
What is SEO?
Search engine optimisation is the original discipline: making your pages rank in the standard Google results, the list of blue links. It is about relevance, authority and technical health, and for most businesses it is still where the majority of findable traffic comes from.
What is AEO?
Answer engine optimisation is about winning the direct answer. The featured snippet at the top of Google, the "people also ask" boxes, the reply a voice assistant reads out. AEO means structuring a page so a search engine can lift a clean, correct answer straight from it.
What is GEO?
Generative engine optimisation is the newest of the three. It is about being named and cited inside the answers that AI tools generate, ChatGPT, Google's AI answers, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity. When someone asks an AI to recommend a business or explain a topic, GEO is what decides whether your brand is in that answer.
How do they compare?
| Discipline | Optimises for | Where you show up | Key move |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEO | Ranking in search results | Google's list of links | Relevance, authority, technical health |
| AEO | Direct answers | Featured snippets, answer boxes, voice | Clear answers under question headings |
| GEO | Being cited by AI | ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity | Credible, quotable, well-sourced content |
Do they compete, or stack?
They stack. A page that ranks well, answers the question cleanly and reads as credible tends to do all three jobs at once. Google's own AI answers often draw on pages that already rank, so strong SEO feeds GEO rather than fighting it. You are not choosing one. You are building one solid page that works everywhere.
Which one does your business need first?
Get the foundation right in order. SEO first, because without findable, credible content you have nothing for the others to build on. Then AEO, by structuring your best pages to answer real questions directly. Then GEO, by making those pages the sort of authoritative, well-sourced source an AI wants to quote. In practice you build all three into the same page rather than running three projects.
What actually gets you cited by AI?
Research into generative engine optimisation found that specific moves lift how often a page is cited. Adding relevant quotations raised citation share by around 41 percent, adding statistics by around 31 percent, and adding clear inline citations by around 28 percent. The lesson is blunt: credibility and structure win. Vague, unsourced marketing copy does not get quoted.
AEO vs GEO vs SEO – frequently asked questions
What is the difference between SEO, AEO and GEO?
SEO gets you ranked in Google's list of links. AEO gets you into direct answer boxes and featured snippets. GEO gets you cited inside AI-generated answers from tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity. They overlap and share the same foundations.
Is GEO replacing SEO?
No. GEO sits on top of SEO. Strong, credible content that ranks well is exactly what AI tools tend to cite, so good SEO feeds GEO. You need both, built into the same pages.
Which is most important for my business?
Start with SEO, because everything else builds on findable, credible content. Then structure your best pages for direct answers (AEO), then make them the kind of authoritative source AI wants to quote (GEO).
How do I get cited by ChatGPT?
Publish clear, well-structured, credible content: a direct answer near the top, question-style headings, named sources and specific figures, and clean formatting an AI can lift. See our guide to writing content AI will quote.
Do I need different content for SEO, AEO and GEO?
Not usually. One well-built page can do all three. The differences are in structure and credibility, not in producing three separate versions of everything.
Which Oxford AI School training fits this need?
Learn the method we run on our own content. GEO workshops in Oxfordshire, London, across the UK and live online.
Want to be the answer, not just a result?
Our Introduction to GEO workshop shows your team how to earn citations from AI search, using the same methods we use on our own content.
Book Introduction to GEO How to write content AI will quote
Harry Lang runs The Oxford AI School, teaching teams and businesses the basics of AI in a fun, easy and practical way. A marketing leader turned AI trainer, he can be reached at Learn@TheOxfordAISchool.com.